


Bad Weather

by two_of_swords



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Dream Pack, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Gangsey, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Minor Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Pre-Epilogue, Recreational Drinking, Recreational Drug Use, Sexual Humor, Vancouver crowd, post-trk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 15:49:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12460962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/two_of_swords/pseuds/two_of_swords
Summary: I see my name has been in your mouth. Well, spit it out.A party at Monmouth with the Vancouver Crowd doesn't quite go as Ronan expected.





	Bad Weather

Ronan Lynch wondered if he’d eventually grow to hate everything about Henrietta. The thought crossed his mind as he waited in his car outside of Nino’s at seven o'clock on a Friday night in late May. Windows down, music blaring, he watched as the parking lot and restaurant slowly filled up with rowdy Aglionby students, eager for the semester to end so they could fly away to their summer homes. No, he decided. It wasn’t Henrietta that he hated. It was Aglionby Academy. Dropping out was the best decision he ever made.

He had received a couple of text messages earlier while he sped toward Henrietta. Normally, he would have obeyed the law and not looked at his phone while he was driving- although he applied that law to any time he wasn’t driving as well- but when he saw Gansey’s name on the screen, he decided to make an exception just this once. They had only recently started speaking again, so he was trying to be on his best behavior.

 

_Can you pick up Blue and the pizzas from Nino’s before you come over?_

 

_Guests have arrived and it would be impolite to leave them now._

 

_Adam’s still at Boyd’s otherwise I would have asked him_

 

So Ronan waited and watched and judged. Blue didn’t show up. Belatedly, he thought maybe she needed some help with the pizzas, so against his better judgment, he got out of the car and went inside to find her. He almost didn’t see her behind the stack of pizza boxes on the counter where she was discreetly cashing out her tips.

“Ready, Maggot?”

Blue Sargent looked up at him and then raised an eyebrow. “He sent you?”

“God, Sargent. You could at least act like you’re happy to see me.”

Blue laughed. “Sorry. I am. But do you see this place? It’s a zoo.”

Ronan looked around and immediately got her point. The Aglionby vultures were staring. He didn’t know how Adam could stand being around them every day. He resisted the urge to flip them all off.

“Are these ours?” He asked Blue, gesturing towards the pizzas.

“Yeah, just give me a couple of seconds. I gotta let Donny know I’m leaving now that Cialina’s here.”

Ronan watched her disappear into the kitchen, then he leaned against the counter and stared menacingly back at some of the losers in the dining room. One group in a booth near the back caught his eye. It was Skov and Swan and Jiang. It was always unsettling to see them out from behind the wheel of a car. Skov nudged Swan with his elbow and pointed indiscreetly at Ronan. Jiang swiveled around in his seat to get a better look. Ronan immediately stood up straight, his instincts began to coil, preparing to strike if necessary.

Blue returned and followed his gaze to the booth in the back. “Ronan, let’s go,” she said, grabbing three large pizza boxes off the top of the stack and heading for the door. The boxes were nearly bigger than she was, but Ronan knew better than to offer her any help. He took the remaining three boxes and followed her. He glanced back at Skov, Swan and Jiang one last time and realized what was unsettling about them. They looked strangely diminished without their king holding court. He couldn’t help but wonder if that’s how he and Adam and Blue would look now if Gansey had stayed dead. He was suddenly filled with regret for fighting with Gansey after everything they had been through.

“Fucking creeps,” Ronan said, once he and Blue were outside.

“I thought for sure you were going to get in a fight,” Blue said.

“Me? I was worried about you,” Ronan teased.

Blue laughed. “Let’s just pretend that never happened. Tonight is supposed to be fun,” she said as they stacked the pizzas in the back seat.

“If you say so, Sargent.” They settled into the front seats.

“Gansey’s going to be so happy you came. He’s been miserable without you.”

Ronan smirked. “All of his things back in one place again.”

He knew as soon as he said it that he wasn’t being fair. Gansey After shouldn’t be held accountable for the actions of Gansey Before, but Ronan had done it anyway. He hadn’t even found out about the deal Gansey had made with Headmaster Child until well after Helen had stepped in and fixed everything and made sure the leftover debris was swept neatly under the rug. When the dust settled, Gansey got to keep his precious Monmouth Manufacturing, but Ronan had packed all of his stuff and officially moved to the Barns. He had been so righteously angry that he didn’t speak to Gansey for weeks. Gansey had attempted to fill the Ronan-sized hole in his heart during those painful weeks with the Vancouver crowd.

“Promise me you’ll be nice to them,” Blue said.

“When have I ever not been nice to people I just met?”

“Um, a certain helicopter ride comes to mind.”

“You were holding hands with my boyfriend.”

“He was my boyfriend at the time. You can’t be mad about it.”

“Whatever. As long as nobody hits on Adam, everything will be fine,” he joked.

Blue laughed. “None of them are that stupid.”

After a moment, Ronan asked “So how much do they know?”

Blue understood what he meant. “None of the magical stuff. They don’t even know about Henry’s abilities. They do know about you and Adam though. He told them last time we hung out. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No. Adam and I have an understanding. If he’s comfortable with them knowing, then so am I.”

Blue was suspiciously quiet, so he spared a glance at her as he pulled into the Monmouth parking lot. Her face was doing something weird that made him intensely uncomfortable. “Don’t look at me like that, Maggot.”

“I can’t help it. You guys are just so solid. I’m so proud of you both,” she said, with a huge grin plastered on her face.

“Jesus, did you think we’d be a fucking trainwreck or something?” he asked, sliding into a parking spot next to Adam’s shitbox and throwing up the parking brake.

Blue quickly got out of the car so she didn’t have to answer.

“Asshole,” he said, jostling her as they carried the pizzas upstairs.

 

\-----

The party was better than Ronan thought it would be.

First of all, he was able to walk right up to his grinning boyfriend, throw an arm around his neck and press a kiss into his temple without anyone giving a fuck. Adam had changed his clothes, but he still smelled like cars and had a tiny smear of grease by his ear. Ronan found this ridiculously sexy, but he knew Adam would be embarrassed, so he used his thumb to rub it off.

“What was that for?” Adam asked.

“You missed a spot,” Ronan said, showing him the grease on his thumb before wiping it on his jeans.

“Yeah, I didn’t shower. I have to be at the warehouse by ten. What’s the point?”

“Mmm. I’m glad,” Ronan said, nuzzling Adam’s neck, breathing him in.

“You are so weird,” Adam laughed.

“Let’s just go to your place now.”

“You just got here.”

“So?”

Second, he and Adam crushed everyone at pool.

“What the fuck, Parrish? How did I not know you were so good at this?”

“You never asked me to play before,” Adam responded, grinning.

“Damn. I thought I was going to get to show you how. You know, all romantic and shit like they do in the movies. Wrap my arms around you from behind. Help you place your hands in the right position on the stick.”

Adam flushed. Ronan loved to make him squirm like this by saying mildly inappropriate things in public. By now, he knew that Adam’s reaction wasn’t embarrassment, but arousal. Ronan raised an eyebrow at Adam suggestively.

Adam quickly composed himself and shrugged. “It’s physics, Lynch.”

“Your man’s a genius. Didn’t you know?” Henry Cheng called to Ronan from across the pool table where he and his partner, Henry Broadway, waited for their turn.

“Parrish, you pretty much have valedictorian locked up now, right? You started writing your speech yet?” Cheng2 asked.

Adam nodded. He glanced at Ronan quickly and looked away, concentrating on his next shot.

When Adam and Ronan won the game, Cheng2 asked, “Best out of three?”

“I can’t play another. I have to leave for work soon,” Adam said.

“Aww, Parrish, that’s disappointing. Looks like we’ll just have to take turns beating Lynch then,” Henry said.

“Nah, I want to go out on top,” Ronan said.

“Since when?” Adam asked, his mouth quirked slyly as he waited for Ronan’s response. Ronan felt his face go warm with pleasure and amusement. He also loved it when Adam said mildly inappropriate things back to him in public. Too bad he didn’t still have his own room here at Monmouth.

Third, he knew Adam would save enough time for a quick make out session before he left for work, so Ronan let a drunk Henry talk him into another game of pool after all. Henry was convinced he could win now that Adam was out of the picture. Ryang and Rutherford watched them play and chatted about cars, a conversation that was much more interesting to Ronan than the one going on across the room where Koh attempted to have a philosophical debate with Adam about the relationship between the soul and the body. Blue sat on Gansey’s lap on the couch and laughed about how woefully unprepared anyone would be to debate Adam on such a topic. In between, Cheng2 and SickSteve got high and added small, detailed amounts of graffiti to Gansey’s miniature Henrietta. When Gansey protested, they snorted with laughter and claimed they knew for a fact that it was historically accurate, since they had created most of it themselves.

Ronan hated to admit that he was actually having fun.

“Lynch!” Adam called from across the room. “I gotta go.” He gestured towards the door. Ronan turned and nodded to Adam.

“Go, go,” Henry said, shooing him away. “Say goodnight to your boyfriend. I promise I won’t strategically move anything while you’re gone.”

“Sure, Cheng,” Ronan said, leaning the pool cue up against the wall. He removed his phone from his pocket and took a picture of the pool table.

“Hey! Don’t you trust me??” Henry asked, his voice full of mock outrage.

“Fuck no. If a single ball is out of place when I get back, I’ll make you wear a hat,” Ronan warned, heading for the door.

“You monster!” Henry called.

Ronan should have known that the fun wouldn’t last.

“So valedictorian, huh? I mean I knew it was inevitable, but you’re already working on your speech. Why didn’t you say anything?” Ronan asked as he followed Adam to his car. Adam frowned as he threw his bag in the back seat and slammed the door. He turned and leaned up against it, crossing his arms in front of him. Ronan reached for him, resting his hands gently on Adam’s shoulders.

After a moment, Adam sighed and uncrossed his arms, reaching up to grip Ronan’s forearms. “I know you don’t want to go to graduation. I didn’t want to give you a reason to feel guilty about it,” he said.

Before Ronan could respond, another car pulled into the lot. He recognized Jiang’s Supra and dropped his arms back to his side. Adam stood up straight.

The tinted window slid down and Jiang stared up at them curiously, his eyes bloodshot.

“So this is where the party’s at,” Skov called from the passenger seat. Swan lounged in the back. Ronan was pretty sure they were all high.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked.

“We just want to catch up, Lynch. It’s been a while.”

“I don’t have anything to say to any of you,” Ronan responded.

“Well, we need to talk to you, so invite us up,” Skov continued.

“No, you can say what you need to say right here,” Ronan said.

“Fine,” Skov said. He got out of the car and Jiang and Swan followed suit. “You sure you want to have this conversation in front of Parrish?”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Adam answered for him, taking a step closer to Ronan.

“We got some bad news today,” Jiang started. “About Prokopenko.”

“What about him?” Ronan asked.

“His parents are broke, man,” Swan replied. “They can’t afford to care for him anymore, so they’re taking him off life support.”

“We thought you might want to know,” Skov added.

Ronan rolled his eyes. “Why the fuck would I want to know?”

Jiang eyed Ronan again before speaking. “All that weird shit K could do, you can do it too, right? That’s why he was obsessed with you. We just thought… I thought maybe you could help.”

“I can’t,” Ronan responded. He resented the fact that he could be making out with Adam right now, but instead these fuckers were trying to ruin his night.

“Can’t or won’t?” Jiang asked.

“Won’t,” Ronan said, without hesitating.

“Do people at Aglionby know about you and Parrish?” Skov asked. He tried to make it sound like a threat, but he didn’t quite pull it off.

Adam laughed, but there was no humor in it. He said, “Look where you are. There are half a dozen Aglionby students upstairs right now. They all know about us. We’re not hiding anything.”

“You actually thought that would work?” Ronan asked.

“It’s not Proko’s fault that K was the way he was. Why should he and his family have to suffer? Especially if you can do something about it,” Jiang said.

Anger surged through Ronan and his hands started to shake. He clenched them into tight fists at his side. It took everything in him to not smash one of them into Skov’s smug face. But then he felt Adam’s hand press into the small of his back and calm flooded through him, replacing the anger. It wasn’t magic, it was truth and trust and love. He felt immediately bolstered by Adam’s presence at his side.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Ronan said, dismissing them with a wave of his perfectly steady hand.

“Whatever, man. Thanks for nothing,” Skov said as they got back in the car and peeled out of the lot.

Ronan watched until he could no longer see the Supra’s taillights on the road. His mind churned. He didn’t like that they knew what he could do. Kavinsky was messed up in all kinds of shit from forgeries to drugs. Ronan could only assume that his buyers were already restless. If they leaned on K’s friends, how easy would it be for them to give up the name of another potential supplier.

“Ronan,” Adam said softly, grabbing his hand.

Ronan didn’t move, so Adam pulled him back.

“Hey. Look at me,” Adam ordered. Ronan finally looked away from the road and met Adam’s eyes. “You don’t owe them anything. You think Kavinsky kidnapped Matthew by himself?”

Ronan shook his head. He didn’t confess his fears to Adam, though he knew he should have. Things were only going to get harder for them once Adam left for college. If their time together now was the best it was going to get, he didn’t want to fuck it up with paranoid suspicions. Suddenly, Ronan fully understood what Declan’s life must have been like since their father died.

“Do you want me to call in sick?” Adam asked.

“No. I’m fine. Go to work, Parrish.”

“I don’t want to tell you what to do, but if you drink, you should crash at my place instead of driving all the way home. Opal will be alright for one night. She’ll be pissed, but she’ll get over it.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

“I won’t be home until two thirty, so just let yourself in.”

Ronan smiled and dangled his key in front of him.

“Hooligan,” Adam said, before kissing him gently. It was too soft and ended too soon. Ronan leaned in for more.

“Hey,” Adam said again, dodging him. “I love you.”

“Asshole,” Ronan said, resting his forehead against Adam’s. “I love you too.”

They at least got to make out for a couple of minutes before Adam finally left.

____

 

Ronan didn’t stay much longer at Monmouth. He didn’t drink. He didn’t go to Adam’s, as much as he wanted to. Instead, he went home and checked on Opal and Chainsaw. He called Matthew just to hear the sound of his voice. Then he asked Matthew to put Declan on the phone.

“Ronan? Is everything ok?”

“I’m not sure. Kavinsky’s pack knows about me. They tried to blackmail me into waking Prokopenko.”

“But that’s not even possible anymore. Is it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve been working on something with Dad’s farm animals, but I still don’t have it right. It’s not easy without Cabeswater.” _Faulty dreamer,_ Ronan thought.

“Who are they?”

Ronan gave him the names. “Do you think they’re a threat?”

“They don’t sound familiar to me, but you never know what kind of connections Kavinsky made. Did Henry know anything?”

“I didn’t ask. He’s too close to Gansey and Blue. I don’t want them involved.”

“What does Adam think?”

“He’s got other things on his mind right now.”

Declan sighed. “Ronan, you can’t deal with this on your own.”

“I know. That’s why I called you,” Ronan snarled.

“Talk to Mr. Gray.”

That was the last thing Ronan wanted to do. He hung up on Declan and paced in the living room. Ronan was infinitely aware that the Gray Man worked tirelessly to keep everything he loved safe. It was a twisted kind of atonement and Ronan knew he should be more grateful, but it was difficult when he still saw visions of his father’s crushed skull in his head when he closed his eyes.

“What are you doing?” A small voice asked.

Ronan stopped pacing and turned to see Opal standing in the doorway wearing one of Adam’s t-shirts, which was long enough on her to graze her hooves. Her hair was mussed from sleep.

“You’re supposed to be in bed, brat.”

She shrugged. “I sleep when you sleep.”

“No, it doesn’t work like that anymore.” He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. She squealed in protest. It reminded him of what was at stake.

When he finally got Opal back to sleep, he returned to the living room and picked up his phone. He had missed a couple of text messages from Declan, which he ignored. He scrolled through his contacts looking for the Gray Man’s number. He hesitated when he found it. He closed his eyes and felt Adam’s hand on his back again, filling him with strength. He tapped the Gray Man’s name on the screen and held the phone to his ear.

“Ronan,” a calm voice answered after three rings.

“I need your help,” Ronan said, cutting right to the chase.

“I know,” Mr. Gray said.

This annoyed Ronan. “How do you know? Is clairvoyance an STD? If so, I’m in fucking trouble.”

Mr. Gray ignored Ronan’s crude attempt at a joke. “Adam called,” he said.

Adam. Of course. That sneaky little shit. Ronan should have known that he had made the same connections. He was way too fucking smart. Ronan loved him so much.

“I’m already working on it,” Mr. Gray said. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Thanks,” he muttered, but the breath he let out betrayed the relief he truly felt.

“Adam’s a good man, Ronan. Hang on to him as long as you can.”

“I know,” Ronan said. “I will.”

  


**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration for Bad Weather is my genuine curiosity about the time period between the last chapter of The Raven King and the Epilogue. I wanted to explore Adam and Ronan's relationship in the context of things that I felt would be challenging to them during this timeframe, like Gansey's deal with Child, the ongoing fallout from Kavinsky's death, Ronan's choice not to go to graduation (more on that in future works), the inclusion of Henry Cheng in the Gangsey, etc. Anyway, I hope you like it!
> 
> Title and Summary are from the song _Bad Weather_ by Kirstin
> 
> Follow me on [tumblr](https://two-of-swords-621.tumblr.com)!


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